Colin Powell: bush never consulted The National Security Council about iraq war

this kind of shows what can happen with a religious idiot with delusions of grandeur in the white house:

WASHINGTON -- In his new book, former Secretary of State Colin Powell provides what may be the most authoritative confirmation yet that there was never a considered debate in the George W. Bush White House about whether going to war in Iraq was really a good idea.

In a chapter discussing what he calls his âinfamousâ February 2003 speech to the United Nations where he authoritatively presented what was later exposed as gross misinformation about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Powell notes that by that time, war âwas approaching.â

âBy then, the President did not think war could be avoided,â Powell writes. âHe had crossed the line in his own mind, even though the NSC [National Security Council] had never met -- and never would meet -- to discuss the decision.â

Bush insisted in his own 2010 memoir, "Decision Points," that the invasion was something he came to support only reluctantly and after a long period of reflection. During his book tour, he even cast himself as âa dissenting voiceâ in the run-up to war. âI didn't wanna use force,â he said.

But Powell supports the increasingly well-documented conclusion that there was actually no decision-making point -- or decision-making process --
Former CIA Director George Tenet made an admission similar to Powellâs in his own 2007 memoir. "There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat," he wrote. Nor "was there ever a significant discussion" about the possibility of containing Iraq without an invasion.

Indeed, history shows that Bush had long wanted to strike out at Saddam Hussein and was trying to link Iraq to 9/11 within a day of the terrorist attacks.

The war, which President Barack Obama officially brought to an end Dec. 31, cost the U.S. government around $3 trilllion, left 4,487 U.S. servicemembers dead and killed more than 100,000 Iraqis. The Pentagon counts 32,226 U.S. servicemembers wounded, but the toll, including cumulative psychological and physiological damage, may be as high as half a million.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/09/colin-powell-book_n_1503592.html